Galaxy Media Profiles: Adam Seranno (Part 2 of 2)
Sean: CBA negotiations are coming up at the end of the season. As someone who has a close relationship with many MLS players, what do you think their biggest demands will be, and do you see the league meeting those demands?
Adam: You know, I certainly think it’s going to be an interesting time. I think that we’ve come to a real important touching point with MLS soccer– with whatever TV deal eventually comes out. With the CBA, I think that we are in the point today where the league has become a serious league. MLS is not going anywhere at all. […] You’re starting to see these big players come here and take soccer in America very seriously. This is a very important time. Definitely you want to see contracts move forward and continue to move forward, which is a big part of attracting players internationally. And also I think you see when you had Omar Gonzalez and Landon Donovan decide to stay with the LA Galaxy, is how important it is at the very bottom. You have with American soccer, we’re always kind of talking about the fact that, you know, maybe players don’t choose to play soccer once they reach high school. Maybe they are a really great athlete—a really great soccer player, football player, baseball player, they’ll choose the more lucrative route, but I want those types of people to see soccer as a place they can really succeed, make money, and really have a solid career. And I think you are going to continue to see that and try and go raise that salary cap which is so important to the sustainability of the league. And I think people expect it to be difficult. […]Nobody wants a work stoppage because soccer is becoming such an entity in the American sports market, and that always grows once you have a World Cup, so no one is going to want to get off that roller coaster at the top, so I think it’s going to be a very difficult set of negotioans, but I think salary is always going to come up. Whether or not the league can meet that, I believe something will happen. You’ll have that kind of consensus and agreement, but I expect it to be difficult.
Sean: Ok, I have to ask you about the big news today. It looks like Omar is out with a knee injury for two weeks. Do you think this hurts his chances of starting in the World Cup?
Adam: You know, Omar is a very fit player. He’s the kind of guy who pays a lot of attention to his physical health, and he takes good care of himself, and you have to remember, this is a guy who suffered a really serious knee injury, was told he was going to come back in 9 months, but ended up coming back in 6 months and helped the Galaxy win a championship. I think this will be a little bit of an issue, just because you want to see him come into camp and hit the ground running, but Omar is the type of player who knows how to deal with injuries. He’s definitely had to do it over the last few years, so, while it might be a little bit of an issue going into camp, I think he is the type of player who can rebound and have a good performance. I expect him to be fully healthy once they play Azerbaijan and do what he has to do to earn his starting spot, because I really believe he will be one of the US National Team’s starting centerbacks when they play Ghana.
Sean: This leads me to the next question. It seems like every day there is a new link between some foreign super star and the Galaxy, in terms of bringing them in as a DP in the summer, but all of this is dependent on Omar leaving, but how much of a given do you think that is?
Adam: It’s certainly something that is up in the air. You have to think that the LA Galaxy will get linked with every single player that comes along. I mean, I can’t even name every single player that I’ve read the Galaxy have been linked with while serving as the Galaxy Insider. I mean, some things are legitimate, some things are not. Most of the time, they’re not. Like 99% of the time, they fall into that category. I think Omar has to have a strong World Cup. Whether or not he leaves is up for debate. I know he is very happy here in southern California. Jurgen Klinsmann is aware of that, and Gonzalez really told him that. He told him, ‘I’m really happy here. I want to stay here,’ and Klinsmann gave him his blessing, […] but I think that maybe one day he might try Europe. One day he might try to go abroad and test himself there. Whether or not that’s this time, whether or not the Galaxy would do that, remains to be seen because right now we’re talking about a guy who really is one of the top two centerbacks in the league […], so the dropoff between losing a guy like Omar and a replacement, while those Galaxy replacements are really solid, it’s still a little bit of a drop there, so I don’t know if you necessarily have an incentive to sell when you have him on a long term deal, and you might think, ‘ok I can keep him for this long, squeeze some […] championships out of him before he moves forward’ , so it’s kind of a wait and see. I don’t know if I would call it a given. I think there is definitely interest. You know, you read the reports on twitter pretty much on a daily basis, but I think that the Galaxy put a substantial investment in this player right off the bat last year, gave him that DP contract, and I think that that pretty much holds up water right now in the reality we live in, so moving him is going to be a little bit of a tricky situation. You never know how that’ll work out, so all I would say is, he is one of the best centerbacks in MLS. To sell that, you have to know that you are getting something very good in return. And I think the Galaxy are happy with him as a centerback, and they want to keep using him as the anchor of their defense.
Sean: How would you assess the general trajectory of the league as a whole? Think things are moving in the right direction?
Adam: I think that MLS has nowhere to go but up. I think you look at the dark days when you had contraction. You know, I was still in middle school when that happened, and I remember that, and I didn’t really understand it then. But you look now at how far it’s come. This league is a serious league. It’s a league that gets a lot of attention globally. It’s a league that gets a lot of attention here at home. And I think it’s something that is only going to grow and develop, and to do that you have to have a good product on the field, and I would say that, from the time that I first started covering the league, back in 2009, to now, there has been a considerable improvement. You’re seeing more teams play a more attractive attacking soccer. You’re seeing the tactics mature. You’re seeing better coaching. And that all happens from the bottom up, and that’s the way the growth is going. And I really feel that MLS is becoming a more mature league. I think it’s starting to get over some problems in terms of the style of play, in terms of personnel. But I really believe that MLS has nowhere to go but up, and it’s really starting to show that. I think you want to see it start to get better ratings on television, but I think that is something that will come in time. You want to see more fans attending the games, which is something that I think is also growing. You’re starting to see more attention on social media. It’s all part of the progression. I mean, we’re not there yet as a major soccer nation like a Mexico or a Spain or a United Kingdom, but we are definitely growing, and, like I said, I think there is nowhere to go but up.
You can follow Adam Seranno on twitter at @GalaxyInsider and read his follow his blog at http://www.lagalaxy.com/blog
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